UVI’s CES Opening Office in Bureau of Motor Vehicles Parking Lot in January

 

While the trailer in BMV parking lot, above, was originally supposed to house a branch of the V.I. Energy Office, UVI CES will take it over next month.

University of the Virgin Islands will have a presence on St. John in the new year.

While the university continues to negotiate with management of The Marketplace, the school’s Cooperative Extension Services is moving ahead with plans to open an office in the brightly painted trailer in the Bureau of Motor Vehicles parking lot, according to Carlos Robles, extension specialist and acting CES supervisor for St. John and St. Thomas.

“The entire university has been in talks with The Marketplace for a space to meet with program participants and distribute information,” said Robles. “CES is currently working on an area near inspection lane, in the trailer there run by solar power. We are in the process of getting ready to move into that facility while we await the facility at The Marketplace.”

CES officials will use the office as a space to offer publications about its programs and as place to meet with its clients in the areas of agriculture, urban gardening, farming, natural resources and family and consumer sciences, Robles explained.

“We’re also going to offer sewing classes, nutrition programs and other non-credit courses that everyone can take for a nominal fee or for free,” he said.

Although CES had an office on St. John for years, officials were forced to shut its doors several years ago because the space, located above Fashion Palace, was not handicapped accessible, according to Robles.

UVI’s CES St. John office should be open in the BMV parking lot by the end of January 2011 and officials hope to be in The Marketplace several months later, Robles added.

“At The Marketplace, we’re looking at the old gym space on the third floor,” he said. “We’re hoping to be over there a few months down the road.”